i am going to the bahamas in 5 days and i was going to make a short pole spear for holed up fish and kill shots on bigger fish i shoot with my sling. I can also use it when i get home for the ultra good 2-3 foot viz we have in the ICW during the winter when i go grouper and sheepshead hunting. i have an anodized aluminum ski pole that is 38 inches long and a 45 inch by 1/4" omer shaft with a hawaiian flopper. the ski pole is 9/16" wide at the fat end and it tapers to 3/8" at the narrow end. the hole in the narrow end is exactly 1/4" so the shaft will be a perfect fit. the inner diameter of the ski pole gets larger as you go to the fat end so i was going to stick the shaft in the ski pole and leave 12 inches of shaft sticking out of the narrow end of the ski pole for a polespear with a total length of 50 inches. i am going to fill the void in the ski pole with epoxy to make it stronger. my question to you is should i add lead shot to my epoxy mixture to further strengthen/ ballast the spear? does anybody see any problems with my design?

So Cal Shaggy

07-27-2008, 12:49 PM

sounds like it will work fine the only way to know is to try it out. This year I built a polespear out of old graphite golf club shafts and used lead weight fishing weights to ballast it then also used eopxy poured inside to keep it from filling with water.

freediverkid21

07-27-2008, 01:24 PM

did you use alot of lead? and i was also wondering, when i drrill a hole in the butt for a band, is it ok to drill through the epoxy or will it crack/melt?

If your main goal is to get big fish such as grouper out of the holes in the Bahamas once you have shot them I would recommend you get a gaff and cut it down so it is about 3 to 4 feet long. It will get them out much better than putting a second shaft into them.

So Cal Shaggy

07-28-2008, 02:27 AM

did you use alot of lead? and i was also wondering, when i drrill a hole in the butt for a band, is it ok to drill through the epoxy or will it crack/melt?

I added enough lead to make it just under 4 lbs and as for the hole where the band goes through I inserted a solid fiberglass dowel and epoxied that in place and drilled the hole in that

SoCalPoleSpear

07-29-2008, 03:10 PM

I just made a pole spear out of my old 2 piece pool cue, drilled a pilot hole and jb welded and treaded as much as possible a 6 mm bolt with the head cut off of it, then drilled at the base and put a band on it

aaron proffitt

07-29-2008, 04:44 PM

Just think ing out loud here.... could you fill the end with lead shot ? Got tons of that crap.

Stick 'EM

07-30-2008, 01:10 PM

I just finished my first prototype pole spear. It is carbon fiber shaft with a Delrin butt. The delrin I spun on my lathe to the proper dia. and inserted 6" into the barrel to add strength. The thing packs a serious wallop with the weight at the bands. I also have one that is not completed that I am going to make a bocote butt for. On the wood butt I plan to install lead (similar to a pool cue) add more drive end punch for bigger fish. I will try to take a picture of the Carbon polespear and put it up.

I guess my point is- Yes, add some lead........It will help balance the shaft and add more thump.

Stick 'EM

07-30-2008, 01:48 PM

Here are a few pics. The delrin butt in stages with a delrin muzzle I spun as well.

The wood pic. is a test piece of Mahogany )with slot for lead. (test for Bocote)

Stick 'EM

07-30-2008, 01:54 PM

The finished spear

freediverkid21

07-31-2008, 07:26 PM

thanks for the ideas guys! i ended up filling it with epoxy and lead shot so it has a total length of 52 inches. i also added a coiled shrink wrap grip like on a Gat-Ku polespear. im leaving for the bahamas for 2 weeks in the morning so ill post pics and a report when i get back.:thumps:

a.s.alvarez

08-03-2008, 10:31 PM

I would REALLY suggest buying a quaility polespear for Bimini. I just got back from bimini I was there 3 weeks. I used my Manny Puig on yellow jacks, triggers, hogs, grouper, a muttons and bunch of other stuff. I love my Puig especially when I used the 1/2" band with the small inner hole. The last thing you want to do is go all the way to Bimini and see great fish and not be able to land them b/c you very a poor quality polespear.

freediverkid21

08-12-2008, 12:57 AM

i just got back from bimini this evening and it was awesome. i used my hawaiian sling 95% of the time but i did use the little pole spear to bag a few lobster. we mostly dove up around great isaacs light and down south in the victory cays. it was an amazing trip and i only managed to lose one sling shaft to an estimated 80 pound african pompano which would have easily been a record had i managed to land it. we cleaned up on the hogs up to about 12 pounds but the strange thing is we only saw 1 black grouper the whole trip and i ran into it while i was chasing the pompano down the reef trying to get my shaft back. we saw quite a few sharks but no real trouble and ill post pics when i get them tommorrow.:lol: